Verizon and feds’ intrusion into privacy

By U-T San Diego

Feds digging into private lives

Here they go again. The federal government’s latest attempt to erode the privacy of the citizens under the guise of the all-encompassing blanket of “terrorism” is outrageous (“Verizon may be giving all call records to NSA,” June 6).

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Why only Verizon? Do they offer terrorists discounts? What about the records of other telecommunications companies or retailers that sell telephones? How about Fed Ex, USPS or Amazon because they ship packages? How about Macy’s or Target because they sell jackets that could hide an explosive device?

If the administration gets its way in the courts, the Fourth Amendment is just brushed aside. Where and when does the incessant intrusion of government into our privacy because it wants to “protect” us or, “save” us, from ourselves end? Americans are quite good at taking care of themselves.

Jim Culbert

Escondido

Fix baseball — ban the druggies

The controversy surrounding baseball and performance enhancing drugs is all very simple to me (“MLB targets two Padres,” June 5).

If baseball team owners want to ensure drugs are not part of the game, all they need to do is have a clause in every player’s contract stating something like, “If you are caught using performance enhancing drugs, of any type, you will be banned from the game for life and any earnings you have received from the time you first entered the major leagues must be returned.”

It is all about driving the desired behavior.

Hunt Eggleston

Rancho Bernardo

Collect DNA and help defeat criminals

The Supreme Court’s decision (“Court OKs collection of DNA after arrest,” June 4) to allow the collection of DNA from an individual after being arrested for a serious crime is a welcome tool to help provide for a more safe, sane and secure society as populations increase and funds diminish.

The ability to utilize existing data banks for processing this potential evidence will only result in the closures of more open crime cases.

Robert J. Goohs

Linda Vista

Are decals really that expensive?

So, Where’s the savings?

Regarding “Windshield ID decals to be ditched by Navy,” (June 5), to my knowledge all civilian jobs within the military are “civil service” jobs, and ditching the decals will do nothing substantial in saving money. The people manning those jobs will not be fired, nor laid off. They will be relocated into other jobs. The cost of materials for decals certainly does not come even close to $750,000.

Not only does the decal serve as a security aid, it also lets the civilian populace know that the owner of the vehicle was, or is serving in the armed forces.

As a 22-year veteran, I can attest to the fact that all military installations do and have checked ID cards as far back as I can remember, so basically, dropping the decal will in fact save money, but the big question is how much. Does it warrant ditching the decal department?

Eugene T. Newsome

(U.S. Navy retired)

Poway

City officials can get in on naming

Regarding “Naming Rights — sell the whole city” (Letters, June 5), why don’t we start with the mayor and the City Council. We can put the council members in NASCAR-type jackets showing who their true owners are. Then the Unions, LGBT and all the other special-interest groups can get the name recognition and branding they deserve.

Brando Fontaine

San Diego

The Cove just stinks

I have lived in the area of the Cove for over 30 years and never to my knowledge has the Cove smelled the way it does now.

I am not a biologist, but I observe two salient facts. First, the place suddenly stinks. Second there are far more seals and sea lions on the rocks in the Cove then there were before the Children’s Beach was opened to humans.

The pinnipeds are clearly unhappy (just listen!) — the rocks are hard to get up on and once up they crowd each other.

The most reasonable explanation for the bad smell seems to me to be that a large number of animals left the Children’s Beach after it was opened (I have observed young and not so young humans running up to the animals). They went mainly to the Cove.

This dramatically transforms the ecology of that site — there are a very much larger number of unhappy pooping animals (and I know what happens to my bowels when I get nervous and unhappy). Let the seals have their beach back for good.

Tracy B. Strong

La Jolla

Takes issue with city attorney I read with surprise in the paper that City Attorney Goldsmith has publicly distributed a legal opinion that “Mayor Filner acted beyond his powers.”

This was with regard to the mayor’s ordering an temporary halt to construction of a fully permitted project. Your report indicated the matter was settled with the builder in a manner which resolved the controversy.

I worked in the City Attorney’s Office for 28 years, all under the apolitical and great John Witt. The problem is that such legal advice from a lawyer to his or her client is the type of advice required to be kept confidential, unless authorized by the client. I have read that Mr. Goldsmith takes the position that the mayor is not his client. I would refer Mr. Goldsmith to the City Charter, which establishes and defines his duties.

The first sentence relating to his function reads, in part, “The City Attorney shall be the chief legal adviser of, and attorney for the City and all departments and offices thereof in matters relating to their official powers and duties... .”It doesn’t take a lawyer to understand that make him the chief legal adviser to the mayor as to the mayor’s powers. By publishing and distributing an opinion which under the California Rules of Professional Conduct should have been the matter of a confidential attorney-client discussion, Mr. Goldsmith has once again shown he cannot be trusted by his client, the mayor.

My recommendation would be for someone who lives in the city to file a complaint with the State Bar about Mr. Goldsmith, since the city’s taxpayers are simply not getting the services they are paying for, and, in fact, because of the apparent vindictiveness of Mr. Goldsmith as a result of his having been stuck with a rather difficult client, the city may eventually be involved with unnecessary costs and litigation.

Hal Valderhaug

La Mesa

Military must address sexual assaults

I am ashamed that we live in a country where in our military, we have had opportunity after opportunity to address the scourge of rape in the military, and have failed miserably at doing so. Unfortunately, for the “MEN” in charge in all aspects of the hierarchy of the military chain of command, there appears to be a complete and utter lack of understanding of this issue and its importance not only to the military, but what it means and says about our country.

It says that we cannot or will not protect our patriotic women who join the military who give their time and service to our nation. Women get raped once and then raped again, if they have the courage to report a rape. The leadership to whom they report the crime appears just as likely to believe them as to be perpetrators themselves. Last year there were over 26K “reported” instance of sexual crimes against women in the military. Talk about the coyotes guarding the poultry pen!

And the news from this week’s hearings is discouraging, to say the least. The generals are “reluctant” to give up control to an independent authority to investigate the rape allegations. Duh! What a surprise. This tells me, that if we listen to them, these horrors will continue to plague the women who so bravely serve our country.

History will judge us harshly, should we not find a way to stop these unacceptable violations of the women who serve in our military. Any country that cannot stop these violations, and when reported, deal with them effectively, cannot call itself an enlightened society.

Greg Morrill

Escondido

Soldier fulfilled his legal duty

The trial of Army Pvt. Bradley Manning is the last and most sordid chapter in the most sordid American war since Vietnam (“Soldier is accused of aiding the enemy,” June 4.) We lost the Iraq War. We lost our reputation. We lost our young men. We lost our soul, and we lost our treasury. We even lost the oil. They Chinese have won the oil of Iraq, and the corporations and war profiteers stole our treasury. The domestic enemies who committed these war crimes have not been held accountable. None of them have gone to trial, and none is in jail.

But Pvt. Bradley “Manning fulfilled his legal duty to report war crimes. He complied with his legal duty to obey lawful orders but also his legal duty to disobey unlawful orders”, wrote San Diego Constitutional lawyer Marjorie Cohn. He, above all, has honor and has done his duty for country.